Anne Arundel police sergeant charged with assaulting another officer

Courtesy Anne Arundel County Pol / Capital Gazette

Sgt. Kenneth Collier, a 21-year veteran of the department, was charged with a felony charge of assaulting a law enforcement officer — punishable by up to 10 years in prison — as well as misdemeanor second-degree assault and resisting arrest.

Sgt. Kenneth Collier, a 21-year veteran of the department, was charged with a felony charge of assaulting a law enforcement officer — punishable by up to 10 years in prison — as well as misdemeanor second-degree assault and resisting arrest. (Courtesy Anne Arundel County Pol / Capital Gazette)

An Anne Arundel police sergeant has been charged with assaulting a fellow officer after a traffic accident Saturday in Crofton.

Sgt. Kenneth Collier, a 21-year veteran of the department, was charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer — a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison — as well as misdemeanor second-degree assault and resisting arrest.

Officers responding to a crash discovered at Ridel Road and Johns Hopkins Road discovered Collier was one of the drivers involved in a two-car crash. They noticed he “was very lethargic and displayed a slow and staggered walk,” charging documents state.

After an officer noticed the smell of alcohol on Collier’s breath and asked if he had been drinking, Collier responded by cursing at the officer, charging documents state.

After Collier showed officers his Anne Arundel County police ID card and badge, police said Collier touched one officer twice after ignoring commands not to touch her, charging documents state.

Police did not identify the officer, but she was identified in charging documents as Officer Elyse Lapham. Lapham graduated from the county police academy in March.

“After ignoring these commands, Mr. Collier proceded to come toward her person and place his left hand on her right upper torso in what Officer Lapham advised was an aggressive manner and began to verbally shout at her, point his finger toward her and try to gain dominance over this situation,” charging documents state.

A struggle between Collier and the other officers ensued before he was placed in custody, charging documents state. He was driving his personal car at the time of the accident, not a department.

No one was injured in the crash.

Police obtained a criminal summons against Collier Sunday. He was taken before a District Court commissioner in Annapolis and released on his own recognizance pending trial in April.

The sergeant has been with the department since 1997, county records show, and made an annual salary of $99,929.44 as of 2018. He could not be reached for comment, and no attorney is listed as representing him in court records.

Anne Arundel County Police Chief Timothy Altomare said the actions detailed in Collier’s arrest report do not reflect the rest of the department.

“Our values as an organization include respect for others and compliance with our laws. Clearly, the behaviors alleged in this incident fall short of those values,” Altomare said in a statement released by the department.

Collier will be suspended without pay pending the outcome of an investigation. An internal review will be completed and the department will cooperate with the State's Attorney's Office, police said.

Collier is one of a handful of Anne Arundel County law enforcement officials who have been charged with crimes over the past two years.

In May, Detective Brian Houseman agreed to resign from the department where he worked as a detective in the Eastern District for more than a decade after he pleaded guilty to two counts of misconduct in office after police said he solicited prostitutes on the job in 2017. The 45-year-old Caroline County man worked at the Eastern District for more than a decade.

He was the second officer to be charged with a sex crime out of that district in 2017 as Bradly Tuthill, 33, was charged with a fourth-degree sex offense and second-degree assault after a woman told police he touched her inappropriately hours after an official call to her home.

The charges were placed on an inactive docket in March, court records show.

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